Chapters 1 through 4 explore two forces that will change the world in the next 20 years. Those two forces are the demographic explosion and the new world economy.
-The demographic explosion is basically saying that there will be a dramatic increase of people over the next 20 years that will feel like an explosion. We are talking going from 6 billion people to 8 billion by 2020-2025. The author explains that most of these people will go to the cities, making the cities overcrowded. Basically, the author is saying that there will could be a lot of negative and positive aspects to this population boom, and a lot of things will change and we need to be aware of that.
-The new world economy has two "engines" behind it, aka two things that power the new world economy. Those two things are a technological revolution and an economic revolution. The author explains that technology will become way more advanced, and the new world economy is just beginning. What the author is really stressing is that we need to understand that things are going to be very very different. Once we get a sense of how different things are going to be, then we can be more prepared for the opportunities and stresses that will come with the new world economy. The new world economy is so different than what we are used to now because it has: faster and leaner production processes, more alliances, more services, more long distance trading and communication, new product of service ideas, basically everything is more advanced. There will be faster, leaner, production processes meaning you work hard QUICKLY and get things done. you have more alliances between companies, aka companies teaming up to be more successful. More services and long distance communication, meaning new ideas coming up all the time, trading services long distance. Products are also changing. You pay more for the SERVICE that is provided than for the actual PRODUCT.
"The new world economy is full of such radically different ways of doing things, many of which have nothing to do with the Internet and the narrow "new economy" concept that has become attached to it. It's more like a new mindset - brought about by the twin economic and technological revolution that are behind this all." -Page 23 *The author is really stressing that we need to be aware of these changes before we can process and use everything that is going to come with them.
Summary #2 (Chapters 5-7) [Due Monday May 10]
Chapters 5 talks about the opportunities and stresses of the New World Economy. Chapter 6 talks about the possibility of a crisis of complexity. And chapter 7 talks about three new realities. Chapters 5-7 are focused on the New World Economy, and the things that come with it. Overall, there are two aspects that come with the new world economy. Unprecedented stresses, and unprecedented opportunities.
Unprecedented Stresses of the New World Economy: -Adapting to the new rules of the game of the new world economy
-Growing disparities between countries and within them
-Greater turbulence and fragility in the new world economy: à Recurring financial market turbulence could be in store as the new world economy develops
Unprecedented Opportunities of the New World Economy: -The new world economy brings in new products, new markets, new ways of doing things
-Demise of inflation (things stop getting expensive)
-Business cycle: à not what it used to be à Before September 11, stock market had a trend of going up and going down, but nothing drastic. After September 11 things went crazy. Stocks went very very high then crashed dramatically. àThe new world economy has/will diminish or lower the crazy business cycle
-Higher productivity growth
-Catch-up opportunities: à Developing countries have an opportunity to catch up and be successful
The author also talks about how human institutions tend to evolve way slower than the new world economy and the demographic explosion. He talks about how those three developing aspects are on different clocks or times. Along the demographic explosion and new world economy lines (on the graph on page 38), they run in dog years. So, one year lost in the fight against global warming is like seven years lost (this would be along the demographic explosion line). On the new world economy line, amazon.com was worth 15 billion dollars when it existed three years, as if it existed 21. Along the human institution line it’s measured in “bureaucratic years”. So if it should have taken something one year to change, it took 7. Human institutions are struggling because they are not made for these kinds of changes.
The three new realities: 1)The author also talks about how hierarchy will not work anymore; instead we have to work together more. 2) The author talked about how the struggles of the Nation-State and how the three systems inside of a nation state (economic system, political system, and environmental system) will be yanked out of its boundaries. 3) the author talked about a new kind of partnership and how the public sector, the business sector, and the civil society interact. He talks about how the civil society has become more powerful because they took advantage of the new technologies available. Basically, that the civil society is the best, but all three parts have to join together in order to fix all of the problems.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
-Global citizenship is being involved globally, not only thinking of yourself but thinking about the world. We see a lot of examples of global citizenship in these chapters. For example, people like farmers suddenly being involved globally because of the internet, or the new world economy flowing across national boundaries, or yanking the economic system and the environmental system outside national borders, or large corporations and the civil society being global and that being an advantage over the government. Global citizenship is being global and being involved globally and using that to your advantage. It is important because without it, the world would not advance.
*the author really stresses that we need to work together to get things fixed
Monday May 10- Summary #3 (Chapters 8-11) [Due Wednesday May 12]
CHAPTER 8: Rischard talks about the graph shown on page 38, which shows the dramatic increasing growth of the New World Economy and the Demographic Explosion and the not so increasing Human Institutions. Rishcard talks about how some people think about slowing down the New World Economy and Demographic Explosion, but his thought is to speed up the Human Institutions. The only problem is that Human Institutions are not willing to try new things and change. He also says that the Human Institutions are not increasing as much because they are "unable to master the stresses brought about by the exponential forces that will so dramatically change the world over the next twenty years." (55). Rischard talks about the problems that came with there being such a gap between the growth of the NWE & DE and the HI. Some of these problems are: the financial crisis of 1997-1998, and the Argentina and Turkey turmoil. CHAPTER 9: Rishcard talks about how major problems (for one example global warming) are being neglected and how people feel very uneasy about that. He suggests that the answer to why we aren't doing enough to solve the global problems is because the current setup for solving global problems doesn't work- it's too slow. This is part of why there is such a big gap between the growths. CHAPTER 10: Rishcard goes into a few specific examples of global problems that aren't being fixed. CHAPTER 11: Rishcard talks about how there are about 20 inherently global issues and how they fall under three categories. 1) Sharing our planet: issues involving the global commons (these issues have to do with how we share our planet). 2) Sharing our humanity: issues requiring a global commitment (these issues have to do with how we share our humanity). And 3) Sharing our rule book: issues needing a global regulatory approach (these issues have to do with how we share our rule book).
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
-from these chapters I have learned that global citizenship is also about being globally involved so you can HELP FIX the problems we have in this world. Global citizenship is being involved on a global level and being aware and wanting to do something about the problems we have. It matters because if everyone ignored all of the problems we have in the world, like hunger and global warming, our world will die. We need to be globally involved to keep our world alive.
Thursday May 13- Summary #4 (Chapters 12-13) [Due Friday May 14]
CHAPTER 12: In this chapter, Rischard talks a lot about sharing our planet and the issues involved the "global commons" which are things we as humans share such as oceans, water, forests, etc. He talks about how we have failed to manage the commons as a community and how we don't realize that the global commons needs to be managed properly and from a global standpoint. Rischard also talks about some of the major problems of our world and how human activities have only been making these global issues worse, and will continue to make things worse if something isn't done. An example of how humans have worsened global issues is on page 72: "Human activities have definitely been increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases, and most of the warming in the last fifty years is human-induced." Rischard talks about how there will be consequences that will affect a lot of people directly because these global issues are not being fixed and humans are not taking into consideration the impact they have on the world (global citizenship). He also talks about how the "dog years" concept applies to the global issues being ignored greatly; one year of these issues being ignored is like seven years of them being ignored. Rischard goes into detail about a lot of global issues (biodiversity and ecosystem losses, fisheries depletion, deforestation, water deficits, and maritime safety and pollution), but he talks about the issue of Global Warming the most in this chapter. There are three things we need to do in order to help with the Global Warming problem, according to Rischard. 1) stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases. We can do this by assigning "an overall greenhouse gas concentration target and allow all countries to claim their right to share the resulting "emissions pie," with their per capita entitlements starting wide apart and then converging to equality over a predetermined period." (74). 2) "the world will need to movie towards an increasingly different energy profile." (74). We can do this by dramatically cutting the use of energy per unit of GDP... aka a big switchover to hydropower, solar energy, wind turbines, as more gas developments. 3) lowering carbon dioxide levels by not cutting down trees and forests. There are solutions to global warming, and there are solutions to fix these global problems. It's not that we don't have the resources, it's that we don't have the new approaches needed to solving global problems, according to Rischard. Global warming is an exmaple of the failure to solve urgent global issues.
CHAPTER 13: In this chapter, Rischard talks about sharing our humanity and issues requiring a global commitment which involve social and economic concerns instead of what was talked about in the previous chapter. Rischard addresses 6 issues regarding sharing our humanity: poverty, conflict/terrorism/peacekeeping, lack of education, global infectious disease, the digital divide, and natural disaster prevention & migration. Rischard talks about poverty being the planet's number one challenge. One reason for this is that it is connected with other global and environmental issues, meaning if we don't succeed in reducing poverty it will be harder to fix other global problems. As well as vice versa, if poverty decreases by large numbers, a lot of other good things will happen regarding the other global issues. Rischard talks about how serious poverty is, what it actually is, and factors that affect it. Poverty is not just lack of money, its lack of power, isolation, insecurity, lack of services, and lack of control over your future. Rischard explains on page 95 what we can do to help reduce poverty. "If the rich countries honored their pledge to devote 0.7 percent of their GDP to aid, $100 billion more would be available each year... if the rich countries opened their markets more widely to the exports of poor countries and reduced the enormous subsidies to their own agriculture, this would be worth at least another $50 - $100 billion a year to the developing world..." (95). Rischard also talks about how this issue of poverty is global, and it requires countries to work together to decrease the numbers in it. Rischard talks about conflict and how wars eventual involve other countries. He talks about how we need better conflict prevention and peacekeeping. He also talks about how we need to change our mindsets so we can fight off global terrorism. Education is another big issue Rischard tackles. Education is key to anything, and as well as poverty education is linked to global issues. Rischard talks about how we need to rebuild the basic education worldwide. Education is important because "Education is the key to building the sense of global citizenship that global-problem solving requires." (102). For the global infectious diseases, Rischard talks about how we need to strengthen the health systems, have better health promotions adn prevention, we need emergency funds to prevent and treat the three main diseases that are killing the world (AIDS, ,malaria, tuberculosis) [or were when this was written], we also need to have more effective products, etc. Rischard talks about how technology and information technology is so unevenly distributed around the world. The use of technology could have so many advantages, but it's not good that they are so unevenly distributed.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
From reading these two chapters, i have learned that global citizenship is being a global citizen; being involved globally and realizing that everything we do affects our world. We do not realize that our world and everything in it need to be managed globally- which means that we need to do thing that will affect our world in a positive way. Global citizenship is not only being involved, but knowing that you affect that world and that the world needs to be taken care of globally. What we do affects our world, our activities have made the world worse and we need to realize. Global citizenship is also having a global commitment. Global citizenship is what we need to use to solve global issues. Global citizenship matters because without being a global citizen, without being involved globally, our major problems cannot be fixed. One person cannot fix these problems, and whether we want to be or not we ARE globally involved and we need to make a better impact on our world.
Monday, May 17/Tuesday, May 18- Summary #5 (Chapters 14-15) [Due Tuesday May, 18]
Chapter 14: In chapter 14, Rischard talks about "sharing our rule book: issues needing a global regulatory approach". The issues he talked about were: reinventing taxation, biotechnology rules, global financial architecture, illegal drugs, trade/investment/competition rules, intellectual property rights, e-commerce rules, and international labor and migration rules. Rischard talked about how each issue needed global rules, and to be monitored or regulated so they wouldn't get out of control in the next years to come. When he talks about reinventing taxation he says there are three reasons why we need to reinvent it: 1) "the new world economy- with its rapid rate of change and its increasing reliance on virtual, delocalized processes- is creating huge challenges for the world's generally slow-moving, highly paper-based, and highly inflexible territorial tax systems." (114) 2) Rethinking/reinventing taxation will help our environment "the entirely different energy profile needed as part of the fight against global warming won't be achieved without powerful tax incentives." (115). 3) It will affect goals and structure. And 4) It will affect methods. Rischard says that any idea for changing the tax system will have serious pros and cons since tax issues are so complex. When Rischard talks about biotechnology rules, he talks about how there needs to be a minimum critical mass of global rules, even if the rules aren't clear yet there just needs to be some sort of global rules. We need rules in this area just like we do in every other area. Without rules, people will go crazy and our world will not be in great shape. When Rischard talks about global financial architecture he talks about there being four main areas that require stepped-up (more advanced/more serious) global problem-solving. Those four regions are: managing international financial crises, strengthening financial systems at large, dealing with financial abuse, and preparing for the future consequences of e-money. Not one of the four issues had been addressed in a reassuring or convincing way when this book was written. Rischard goes into each of the four issues and talks about them and why rules are needed for them. When he talks about illegal drugs Rischard talks about how rules are mandatory, especially in drugs, to do SOMETHING. Stopping the use of drugs overall is near impossible, and Rischard suggests we lower the production of the drugs so the demand can go down instead of trying to lower the demand. When Rischard talks about trade, investment, and competition rules again he talks about how bad these issues are and why they need rules and regulations. The same is with intellectual property rights and international labor and migration rules. When he talks about e-commerce he goes a little more into it describing how e-commerce is driven by big advantages such as having a global reach (no limits), having a greater choice, lower costs, and easier transportation.
Chapter 15: In this chapter, (which is the first chapter of part three: "Thinking Aloud - New Approaches to Global Problem-Solving") Rischard talks about how his list of issues is not final and people should dispute his list. He also talks about how in that list of issues (total of 20) there are really only 15 TRULY global issues, but when you add in ones he didn't even go into the list becomes 25 truly global issues. There were a lot of issues Rischard didn't even go into or put on his list, but the issues he DID put on his list all have a few important characteristics/similarities: they are planetary, they are urgent global issues, the are not expensive to fix overall, they are hard to fix, and despite some progress here and there, there really hasn't been any major progress and these issues have not been looked into deeply enough.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
In these chapters, there were a lot of examples of global citizenship. For example, when Rischard talks about the need to rethink taxation he says the world is better off with a global framework for rethinking taxation, meaning there needs to be a global beginning some sort of base that is going to apply to everyone. This is global citizenship because it is involving EVERYONE; it's global. Another example of global citizenship is having a global standard, meaning everyone is unified and has a basic standard that we can start off of. This is global citizenship because again it's involving the whole world whether people like it or not. Global citizenship is also sharing things globally, and having the world follow a global standard or set of principles. Global citizenship also means acting unified and together. If we are going to be involved with everyone and be global we have to work together and be unified. Global citizenship is also global enforcement- meaning having these global standards that we come up with and them enforcing them together for the whole world. Basically, global citizenship (although it can have many parts to it) is working together,GLOBALLY, to make an impact on the world.
Wednesday, May 19 - Summary #6 (Chapters 16-23) [Due Friday May 21]
Chapter 16: This chapter talked about the current ways we handle global issues and how they are not what we need them to be. Rischard explains that there are four parts to our set-up of international problem solving; treaties and conventions, big intergovernmental conferences, G7 and other similar groupings of countries, and global multilaterals. All of these systems are not working well enough to fix our problems. The overall progress we have in fixing these global issues is: a lot of problems have NOT been fixed and it has been a very slow process. These systems are not fast or "new" enough to handle the new world economy. Rischard also talks about how these programs have to work together, one alone will not fix the global problems. We have to work together, as a world, to fix our problems. Aka, be global citizens.
Chapter 17: Chapter 17 talks about how Rischard thinks there is no chance for a hierarchal world government because it wouldn't be able to function at a world level. A good example of why it wouldn't work is looking at the European Union- it's not working for them and they are a smaller chunk of people compared to the entire world. If it can't work for them, it wouldn't be able to work for the entire world. Rischard also asks the question: "What would it feel like to be a "global citizen" under a world government?" (167). I think this question is very important. In order to fix our world, we have to be global citizens. If we had a world government, being a global citizen wouldn't work out very well because people would be unhappy at the way things are working and there would be protests which would only dis unify us as a world, instead of unify us.
Chapter 18: This chapter talks about how a networked governance will be our solution. In order to do this we must do two things: minimize complexity and hierarchy and minimize booting-up and delivery times. In other words, complication and hierarchy minimized and booting-up and delivery times must be fast. These global issues cannot wait a long time to negotiate treaties, these issues need to be fixed pronto. Overall, we must change from a traditional hierarchal government to a networked governance.
Chapter 19: In this chapter Rischard talks about the global issues networks. Each network would be focues on an urgent global issue (so there would be about 20 networks since there are about 20 major issues). Rischard believes that the global issues networks would go through three stages: a constitutional phase, a norm-producing phase, and an implementation phase. Each network would be permanent, and the number of people involved would increase as the three phases went on. During the constitutional phase, the network would be set up/set in motion. This would take about a year and they would take people who are experienced and knowledgeable about the issue to be apart of the network. There would be one leader (the global multilateral), one representative taken from the network's civil society member-ship, and one representative taken from the business membership to start out. During the first phase, the goal is to set the base and to build up. The second phase, the norm-producing phase would talk about the production of norms, standards, or policy recommendations. The number of members would go up and this would take about two to three years. Rischard explains that there needs to be discipline and enforcement in these "norms" (rules) in order for the network to be successful. Most importantly, the people who are members of the network have to be educated on the issue, and educated in general. The last phase, the implementation phase, would rate countried and players against norms (aka see how well other countries are doing in following the rules), create reputation effects through naming and shaming (aka naming and shaming the people who ignore the norms so they make sure their members stay focused and know what they are doing), and finally the networks would also become a best practice exchange system making their town meetings observatories and knowledge exchanges. Overall in this chapter, Rischard talks about the solutions to fixing our global problems and how he thinks the global issues networks should run.
Chapter 20: This chapter Rischard talks about the good things about global issues networks. Rischard talks about how global issues networks have four themes that overlap each other and those themes could potentially advance our global problem-solving and make it better. Theme 1: SPEED. The networks will have a fast norm production and activation of reputation effect. Basically, they will have the work ethic to get things done. The networks will also put pressure on the already existing system and make it respond at a much faster pace than it would naturally adopt. Basically, the networks will make things go faster which is what we need in the new world economy, according to Rischard. Theme 2: LEGITIMACY. Rischard explains: "to communicate as effectively on the international stage, citizens would need to develop a sort of global identity- not an easy thing to do." (182). He also explains that global issues networks (with their electronic town meetings) have began to overcome this problem. Why? When you build a network around ONE issue it brings more people in and they have a common thing/ a shared concern. networks also involve people from all over the world, which promotes global citizenship which we need for global problem-solving. The electronic town meetings is new- it reduces the space between people and policymakers. But where does legitimacy play in? Rishcard explains that there are horizontal legitimacies (global issues networks) and there are vertical legitimacies (governments, elected reps, people). The horizontal legitimacies are made to put pressure on the vertical legitimacies (which are the traditional nation-states) and they pressure them to doing better on the urgent global issues we have. Theme 3: DIVERSITY. Another positive thing about global issues networks is the diversity of it. "The power of the knowledge contributions from such variegated players is a definite advantage over the current international setup." (184). Theme 4: COMPATIBILITY WITH TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS. "global issues networks are in the business of getting the best out of the existing international setup." (185). This is another positive thing about global issues networks; Rischard explains how getting the best out of the existing setup is much better than trying to create something new or to have reforms of the current setups. It is a much better option because trying to create something new and reforms would take a lot of time, and our world cannot afford that right now. At the end of this chapter, Rischard talks about how the global issues netowrks are apart of the networked governance. He tells us to expect the networked governance to be messy, ambiguous, and corner-cutting. But the positive things of a networked governance is speed, action, and the horizontal and vertical legitimacy process.
Chapter 21: This chapter talks about the bad things that come with networked governance and the global issues networks. There are four main aspects that are negative: the sheer complexity of the tasks, legitimacy and democratic representation, linkages between issues, and the simplistic appearance of it all. The sheer complexity of the tasks: basically, these tasks are challenging; they are either politically difficult, technically difficult, or both. Legitimacy and democratic representation: who will be the representative? Linkages between issues: linkages between issues could get lost... We also have to remember that some issues (such as poverty) are connected to other issues... if they fall, so does everything else. However, Rischard talks about a solution to this: to have a "twenty-first global issues network that would serve as the connector between issues and the networks working on them." (191). Aka, one big connector so each network can focus on their issue and this big connector will think globally. The simplistic appearance of it all: basically, it's not as simple as it may seem.
Chapter 22: This chapter talks about the other solutions to solving these global issues besides global issues networks. The G20 track: keep the issue-by-issue approach but stick to a more traditional approach of GROUPING countries. For each issue you would have a G20. G20's would also be more on-and-off than permanent/consistent, but G20's have the most "practical simplicity." (194). The new diplomacy track- and expanded concept of aid: this involves an expanded concept of diplomacy and aid. Rishcard explains some things we would need to do to create this expanded concept of aid: creating expert-diplomats who would directly deal with their equivalent foreign country/area on global issues, having two budgets rather than just one; one for domestic programs (c budget for country) and one for global action (g budget for global), divide official development aid in C and G budgets, and set up a global participation fund to help poor developing countries participate in global-problem solving (aka let them be a global citizen!). Rischard also talks about a possibility that the current international set up is not replaced but instead put under pressure through three things: global issues networks for some issues, G20 for others, and ideas on new diplomacy and expanded aid being applied more generally. Although this could be very messy, it could work even if we go back to some old ways of thinking, according to Rischard. Rischard also talks about some solutions that would not work: setting up a world parliament, creating an economic security council at the UN, increasing the G7 to a G16 or even a G20, launching a global governance group of 24 members. According to Rischard, these solutions would not work because they are trying to fix ALL of the global issues under one system- which will not work. Rischard also talks about how our world is sort of split in half- half of the people want change, the other half are afraid of it. The best way to not make those tensions worse would to deal with the issues issue-by-issue.
Chapter 23: This chapter was the conclusion chapter. Basically, people are looking for change so the global problems will get fixed. The world knows there is that upside, but right now we are not in it and we are running out of time to fix our world. The networks idea is a good solution to fix our problems because its fast, its flexible, and it can work with our time frame. According to Rischard, we need imagination, a different type of thinking... basically we need to think OUTSIDE of the box, and we need to do it quickly. We need to think straight and not get sucked into confused thinking. Rischard suggests that the way out of confused thinking is to step back and look at the two forces that will change our world: the population growth (making out world tight) and the new world economy (doing everything differently). These two forces bring with them a lot of stresses and a lot of potential and opportunities. "The biggest issue of our time is right there: raising the game of these human institutions and particularly of those in charge of public governance." (201). This is a huge job, and we need to think outside the box and act globally to fix our problems. Our current intrnational setup will not fix things, we need something new.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
From these chapters I have learned that we cannot fix our problems alone, we need to be global citizens and think globally and work together. You have to think and act as a global citizen in order to be successful; and EVERYONE has to think and act as a global citizen. People from all over the world have to be involved in what we are doing. Global citizenship is essential to global problem-solving. We are not going to solve anything if we only think of ourselves. For example, the members of the global issues networks have to think like global citizens in order for their problem to be fixed. If they act like global citizens and know what is going on around them they will have a better chance of having solutions to our problems. You cannot just represent yourself, you have to represent globally and be a part GLOBALLY. Everyone has to be involved, everyone needs to act globally and everyone needs to be aware of what is going on around them or else we will not be able to unify and fix our global issues.
Summary #1 (Chapters 1-4) [Due Friday May 7]
Chapters 1 through 4 explore two forces that will change the world in the next 20 years. Those two forces are the demographic explosion and the new world economy.-The demographic explosion is basically saying that there will be a dramatic increase of people over the next 20 years that will feel like an explosion. We are talking going from 6 billion people to 8 billion by 2020-2025. The author explains that most of these people will go to the cities, making the cities overcrowded. Basically, the author is saying that there will could be a lot of negative and positive aspects to this population boom, and a lot of things will change and we need to be aware of that.
-The new world economy has two "engines" behind it, aka two things that power the new world economy. Those two things are a technological revolution and an economic revolution. The author explains that technology will become way more advanced, and the new world economy is just beginning. What the author is really stressing is that we need to understand that things are going to be very very different. Once we get a sense of how different things are going to be, then we can be more prepared for the opportunities and stresses that will come with the new world economy. The new world economy is so different than what we are used to now because it has: faster and leaner production processes, more alliances, more services, more long distance trading and communication, new product of service ideas, basically everything is more advanced. There will be faster, leaner, production processes meaning you work hard QUICKLY and get things done. you have more alliances between companies, aka companies teaming up to be more successful. More services and long distance communication, meaning new ideas coming up all the time, trading services long distance. Products are also changing. You pay more for the SERVICE that is provided than for the actual PRODUCT.
"The new world economy is full of such radically different ways of doing things, many of which have nothing to do with the Internet and the narrow "new economy" concept that has become attached to it. It's more like a new mindset - brought about by the twin economic and technological revolution that are behind this all." -Page 23
*The author is really stressing that we need to be aware of these changes before we can process and use everything that is going to come with them.
Summary #2 (Chapters 5-7) [Due Monday May 10]
Chapters 5 talks about the opportunities and stresses of the New World Economy. Chapter 6 talks about the possibility of a crisis of complexity. And chapter 7 talks about three new realities. Chapters 5-7 are focused on the New World Economy, and the things that come with it. Overall, there are two aspects that come with the new world economy. Unprecedented stresses, and unprecedented opportunities.Unprecedented Stresses of the New World Economy:
-Adapting to the new rules of the game of the new world economy
-Growing disparities between countries and within them
-Greater turbulence and fragility in the new world economy:
à Recurring financial market turbulence could be in store as the new world economy develops
Unprecedented Opportunities of the New World Economy:
-The new world economy brings in new products, new markets, new ways of doing things
-Demise of inflation (things stop getting expensive)
-Business cycle:
à not what it used to be
à Before September 11, stock market had a trend of going up and going down, but nothing drastic. After September 11 things went crazy. Stocks went very very high then crashed dramatically.
àThe new world economy has/will diminish or lower the crazy business cycle
-Higher productivity growth
-Catch-up opportunities:
à Developing countries have an opportunity to catch up and be successful
The author also talks about how human institutions tend to evolve way slower than the new world economy and the demographic explosion. He talks about how those three developing aspects are on different clocks or times. Along the demographic explosion and new world economy lines (on the graph on page 38), they run in dog years. So, one year lost in the fight against global warming is like seven years lost (this would be along the demographic explosion line). On the new world economy line, amazon.com was worth 15 billion dollars when it existed three years, as if it existed 21. Along the human institution line it’s measured in “bureaucratic years”. So if it should have taken something one year to change, it took 7. Human institutions are struggling because they are not made for these kinds of changes.
The three new realities: 1)The author also talks about how hierarchy will not work anymore; instead we have to work together more. 2) The author talked about how the struggles of the Nation-State and how the three systems inside of a nation state (economic system, political system, and environmental system) will be yanked out of its boundaries. 3) the author talked about a new kind of partnership and how the public sector, the business sector, and the civil society interact. He talks about how the civil society has become more powerful because they took advantage of the new technologies available. Basically, that the civil society is the best, but all three parts have to join together in order to fix all of the problems.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
-Global citizenship is being involved globally, not only thinking of yourself but thinking about the world. We see a lot of examples of global citizenship in these chapters. For example, people like farmers suddenly being involved globally because of the internet, or the new world economy flowing across national boundaries, or yanking the economic system and the environmental system outside national borders, or large corporations and the civil society being global and that being an advantage over the government. Global citizenship is being global and being involved globally and using that to your advantage. It is important because without it, the world would not advance.*the author really stresses that we need to work together to get things fixed
Monday May 10- Summary #3 (Chapters 8-11) [Due Wednesday May 12]
CHAPTER 8: Rischard talks about the graph shown on page 38, which shows the dramatic increasing growth of the New World Economy and the Demographic Explosion and the not so increasing Human Institutions. Rishcard talks about how some people think about slowing down the New World Economy and Demographic Explosion, but his thought is to speed up the Human Institutions. The only problem is that Human Institutions are not willing to try new things and change. He also says that the Human Institutions are not increasing as much because they are "unable to master the stresses brought about by the exponential forces that will so dramatically change the world over the next twenty years." (55). Rischard talks about the problems that came with there being such a gap between the growth of the NWE & DE and the HI. Some of these problems are: the financial crisis of 1997-1998, and the Argentina and Turkey turmoil.
CHAPTER 9: Rishcard talks about how major problems (for one example global warming) are being neglected and how people feel very uneasy about that. He suggests that the answer to why we aren't doing enough to solve the global problems is because the current setup for solving global problems doesn't work- it's too slow. This is part of why there is such a big gap between the growths.
CHAPTER 10: Rishcard goes into a few specific examples of global problems that aren't being fixed.
CHAPTER 11: Rishcard talks about how there are about 20 inherently global issues and how they fall under three categories. 1) Sharing our planet: issues involving the global commons (these issues have to do with how we share our planet). 2) Sharing our humanity: issues requiring a global commitment (these issues have to do with how we share our humanity). And 3) Sharing our rule book: issues needing a global regulatory approach (these issues have to do with how we share our rule book).
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
-from these chapters I have learned that global citizenship is also about being globally involved so you can HELP FIX the problems we have in this world. Global citizenship is being involved on a global level and being aware and wanting to do something about the problems we have. It matters because if everyone ignored all of the problems we have in the world, like hunger and global warming, our world will die. We need to be globally involved to keep our world alive.Thursday May 13- Summary #4 (Chapters 12-13) [Due Friday May 14]
CHAPTER 12: In this chapter, Rischard talks a lot about sharing our planet and the issues involved the "global commons" which are things we as humans share such as oceans, water, forests, etc. He talks about how we have failed to manage the commons as a community and how we don't realize that the global commons needs to be managed properly and from a global standpoint. Rischard also talks about some of the major problems of our world and how human activities have only been making these global issues worse, and will continue to make things worse if something isn't done. An example of how humans have worsened global issues is on page 72: "Human activities have definitely been increasing the concentrations of greenhouse gases, and most of the warming in the last fifty years is human-induced." Rischard talks about how there will be consequences that will affect a lot of people directly because these global issues are not being fixed and humans are not taking into consideration the impact they have on the world (global citizenship). He also talks about how the "dog years" concept applies to the global issues being ignored greatly; one year of these issues being ignored is like seven years of them being ignored. Rischard goes into detail about a lot of global issues (biodiversity and ecosystem losses, fisheries depletion, deforestation, water deficits, and maritime safety and pollution), but he talks about the issue of Global Warming the most in this chapter. There are three things we need to do in order to help with the Global Warming problem, according to Rischard. 1) stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases. We can do this by assigning "an overall greenhouse gas concentration target and allow all countries to claim their right to share the resulting "emissions pie," with their per capita entitlements starting wide apart and then converging to equality over a predetermined period." (74). 2) "the world will need to movie towards an increasingly different energy profile." (74). We can do this by dramatically cutting the use of energy per unit of GDP... aka a big switchover to hydropower, solar energy, wind turbines, as more gas developments. 3) lowering carbon dioxide levels by not cutting down trees and forests. There are solutions to global warming, and there are solutions to fix these global problems. It's not that we don't have the resources, it's that we don't have the new approaches needed to solving global problems, according to Rischard. Global warming is an exmaple of the failure to solve urgent global issues.
CHAPTER 13: In this chapter, Rischard talks about sharing our humanity and issues requiring a global commitment which involve social and economic concerns instead of what was talked about in the previous chapter. Rischard addresses 6 issues regarding sharing our humanity: poverty, conflict/terrorism/peacekeeping, lack of education, global infectious disease, the digital divide, and natural disaster prevention & migration. Rischard talks about poverty being the planet's number one challenge. One reason for this is that it is connected with other global and environmental issues, meaning if we don't succeed in reducing poverty it will be harder to fix other global problems. As well as vice versa, if poverty decreases by large numbers, a lot of other good things will happen regarding the other global issues. Rischard talks about how serious poverty is, what it actually is, and factors that affect it. Poverty is not just lack of money, its lack of power, isolation, insecurity, lack of services, and lack of control over your future. Rischard explains on page 95 what we can do to help reduce poverty. "If the rich countries honored their pledge to devote 0.7 percent of their GDP to aid, $100 billion more would be available each year... if the rich countries opened their markets more widely to the exports of poor countries and reduced the enormous subsidies to their own agriculture, this would be worth at least another $50 - $100 billion a year to the developing world..." (95). Rischard also talks about how this issue of poverty is global, and it requires countries to work together to decrease the numbers in it. Rischard talks about conflict and how wars eventual involve other countries. He talks about how we need better conflict prevention and peacekeeping. He also talks about how we need to change our mindsets so we can fight off global terrorism. Education is another big issue Rischard tackles. Education is key to anything, and as well as poverty education is linked to global issues. Rischard talks about how we need to rebuild the basic education worldwide. Education is important because "Education is the key to building the sense of global citizenship that global-problem solving requires." (102). For the global infectious diseases, Rischard talks about how we need to strengthen the health systems, have better health promotions adn prevention, we need emergency funds to prevent and treat the three main diseases that are killing the world (AIDS, ,malaria, tuberculosis) [or were when this was written], we also need to have more effective products, etc. Rischard talks about how technology and information technology is so unevenly distributed around the world. The use of technology could have so many advantages, but it's not good that they are so unevenly distributed.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
From reading these two chapters, i have learned that global citizenship is being a global citizen; being involved globally and realizing that everything we do affects our world. We do not realize that our world and everything in it need to be managed globally- which means that we need to do thing that will affect our world in a positive way. Global citizenship is not only being involved, but knowing that you affect that world and that the world needs to be taken care of globally. What we do affects our world, our activities have made the world worse and we need to realize. Global citizenship is also having a global commitment. Global citizenship is what we need to use to solve global issues. Global citizenship matters because without being a global citizen, without being involved globally, our major problems cannot be fixed. One person cannot fix these problems, and whether we want to be or not we ARE globally involved and we need to make a better impact on our world.Monday, May 17/Tuesday, May 18- Summary #5 (Chapters 14-15) [Due Tuesday May, 18]
Chapter 14: In chapter 14, Rischard talks about "sharing our rule book: issues needing a global regulatory approach". The issues he talked about were: reinventing taxation, biotechnology rules, global financial architecture, illegal drugs, trade/investment/competition rules, intellectual property rights, e-commerce rules, and international labor and migration rules. Rischard talked about how each issue needed global rules, and to be monitored or regulated so they wouldn't get out of control in the next years to come. When he talks about reinventing taxation he says there are three reasons why we need to reinvent it: 1) "the new world economy- with its rapid rate of change and its increasing reliance on virtual, delocalized processes- is creating huge challenges for the world's generally slow-moving, highly paper-based, and highly inflexible territorial tax systems." (114) 2) Rethinking/reinventing taxation will help our environment "the entirely different energy profile needed as part of the fight against global warming won't be achieved without powerful tax incentives." (115). 3) It will affect goals and structure. And 4) It will affect methods. Rischard says that any idea for changing the tax system will have serious pros and cons since tax issues are so complex. When Rischard talks about biotechnology rules, he talks about how there needs to be a minimum critical mass of global rules, even if the rules aren't clear yet there just needs to be some sort of global rules. We need rules in this area just like we do in every other area. Without rules, people will go crazy and our world will not be in great shape. When Rischard talks about global financial architecture he talks about there being four main areas that require stepped-up (more advanced/more serious) global problem-solving. Those four regions are: managing international financial crises, strengthening financial systems at large, dealing with financial abuse, and preparing for the future consequences of e-money. Not one of the four issues had been addressed in a reassuring or convincing way when this book was written. Rischard goes into each of the four issues and talks about them and why rules are needed for them. When he talks about illegal drugs Rischard talks about how rules are mandatory, especially in drugs, to do SOMETHING. Stopping the use of drugs overall is near impossible, and Rischard suggests we lower the production of the drugs so the demand can go down instead of trying to lower the demand. When Rischard talks about trade, investment, and competition rules again he talks about how bad these issues are and why they need rules and regulations. The same is with intellectual property rights and international labor and migration rules. When he talks about e-commerce he goes a little more into it describing how e-commerce is driven by big advantages such as having a global reach (no limits), having a greater choice, lower costs, and easier transportation.
Chapter 15: In this chapter, (which is the first chapter of part three: "Thinking Aloud - New Approaches to Global Problem-Solving") Rischard talks about how his list of issues is not final and people should dispute his list. He also talks about how in that list of issues (total of 20) there are really only 15 TRULY global issues, but when you add in ones he didn't even go into the list becomes 25 truly global issues. There were a lot of issues Rischard didn't even go into or put on his list, but the issues he DID put on his list all have a few important characteristics/similarities: they are planetary, they are urgent global issues, the are not expensive to fix overall, they are hard to fix, and despite some progress here and there, there really hasn't been any major progress and these issues have not been looked into deeply enough.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
In these chapters, there were a lot of examples of global citizenship. For example, when Rischard talks about the need to rethink taxation he says the world is better off with a global framework for rethinking taxation, meaning there needs to be a global beginning some sort of base that is going to apply to everyone. This is global citizenship because it is involving EVERYONE; it's global. Another example of global citizenship is having a global standard, meaning everyone is unified and has a basic standard that we can start off of. This is global citizenship because again it's involving the whole world whether people like it or not. Global citizenship is also sharing things globally, and having the world follow a global standard or set of principles. Global citizenship also means acting unified and together. If we are going to be involved with everyone and be global we have to work together and be unified. Global citizenship is also global enforcement- meaning having these global standards that we come up with and them enforcing them together for the whole world. Basically, global citizenship (although it can have many parts to it) is working together,GLOBALLY, to make an impact on the world.Wednesday, May 19 - Summary #6 (Chapters 16-23) [Due Friday May 21]
Chapter 16: This chapter talked about the current ways we handle global issues and how they are not what we need them to be. Rischard explains that there are four parts to our set-up of international problem solving; treaties and conventions, big intergovernmental conferences, G7 and other similar groupings of countries, and global multilaterals. All of these systems are not working well enough to fix our problems. The overall progress we have in fixing these global issues is: a lot of problems have NOT been fixed and it has been a very slow process. These systems are not fast or "new" enough to handle the new world economy. Rischard also talks about how these programs have to work together, one alone will not fix the global problems. We have to work together, as a world, to fix our problems. Aka, be global citizens.
Chapter 17: Chapter 17 talks about how Rischard thinks there is no chance for a hierarchal world government because it wouldn't be able to function at a world level. A good example of why it wouldn't work is looking at the European Union- it's not working for them and they are a smaller chunk of people compared to the entire world. If it can't work for them, it wouldn't be able to work for the entire world. Rischard also asks the question: "What would it feel like to be a "global citizen" under a world government?" (167). I think this question is very important. In order to fix our world, we have to be global citizens. If we had a world government, being a global citizen wouldn't work out very well because people would be unhappy at the way things are working and there would be protests which would only dis unify us as a world, instead of unify us.
Chapter 18: This chapter talks about how a networked governance will be our solution. In order to do this we must do two things: minimize complexity and hierarchy and minimize booting-up and delivery times. In other words, complication and hierarchy minimized and booting-up and delivery times must be fast. These global issues cannot wait a long time to negotiate treaties, these issues need to be fixed pronto. Overall, we must change from a traditional hierarchal government to a networked governance.
Chapter 19: In this chapter Rischard talks about the global issues networks. Each network would be focues on an urgent global issue (so there would be about 20 networks since there are about 20 major issues). Rischard believes that the global issues networks would go through three stages: a constitutional phase, a norm-producing phase, and an implementation phase. Each network would be permanent, and the number of people involved would increase as the three phases went on. During the constitutional phase, the network would be set up/set in motion. This would take about a year and they would take people who are experienced and knowledgeable about the issue to be apart of the network. There would be one leader (the global multilateral), one representative taken from the network's civil society member-ship, and one representative taken from the business membership to start out. During the first phase, the goal is to set the base and to build up. The second phase, the norm-producing phase would talk about the production of norms, standards, or policy recommendations. The number of members would go up and this would take about two to three years. Rischard explains that there needs to be discipline and enforcement in these "norms" (rules) in order for the network to be successful. Most importantly, the people who are members of the network have to be educated on the issue, and educated in general. The last phase, the implementation phase, would rate countried and players against norms (aka see how well other countries are doing in following the rules), create reputation effects through naming and shaming (aka naming and shaming the people who ignore the norms so they make sure their members stay focused and know what they are doing), and finally the networks would also become a best practice exchange system making their town meetings observatories and knowledge exchanges. Overall in this chapter, Rischard talks about the solutions to fixing our global problems and how he thinks the global issues networks should run.
Chapter 20: This chapter Rischard talks about the good things about global issues networks. Rischard talks about how global issues networks have four themes that overlap each other and those themes could potentially advance our global problem-solving and make it better. Theme 1: SPEED. The networks will have a fast norm production and activation of reputation effect. Basically, they will have the work ethic to get things done. The networks will also put pressure on the already existing system and make it respond at a much faster pace than it would naturally adopt. Basically, the networks will make things go faster which is what we need in the new world economy, according to Rischard. Theme 2: LEGITIMACY. Rischard explains: "to communicate as effectively on the international stage, citizens would need to develop a sort of global identity- not an easy thing to do." (182). He also explains that global issues networks (with their electronic town meetings) have began to overcome this problem. Why? When you build a network around ONE issue it brings more people in and they have a common thing/ a shared concern. networks also involve people from all over the world, which promotes global citizenship which we need for global problem-solving. The electronic town meetings is new- it reduces the space between people and policymakers. But where does legitimacy play in? Rishcard explains that there are horizontal legitimacies (global issues networks) and there are vertical legitimacies (governments, elected reps, people). The horizontal legitimacies are made to put pressure on the vertical legitimacies (which are the traditional nation-states) and they pressure them to doing better on the urgent global issues we have. Theme 3: DIVERSITY. Another positive thing about global issues networks is the diversity of it. "The power of the knowledge contributions from such variegated players is a definite advantage over the current international setup." (184). Theme 4: COMPATIBILITY WITH TRADITIONAL INSTITUTIONS. "global issues networks are in the business of getting the best out of the existing international setup." (185). This is another positive thing about global issues networks; Rischard explains how getting the best out of the existing setup is much better than trying to create something new or to have reforms of the current setups. It is a much better option because trying to create something new and reforms would take a lot of time, and our world cannot afford that right now. At the end of this chapter, Rischard talks about how the global issues netowrks are apart of the networked governance. He tells us to expect the networked governance to be messy, ambiguous, and corner-cutting. But the positive things of a networked governance is speed, action, and the horizontal and vertical legitimacy process.
Chapter 21: This chapter talks about the bad things that come with networked governance and the global issues networks. There are four main aspects that are negative: the sheer complexity of the tasks, legitimacy and democratic representation, linkages between issues, and the simplistic appearance of it all. The sheer complexity of the tasks: basically, these tasks are challenging; they are either politically difficult, technically difficult, or both. Legitimacy and democratic representation: who will be the representative? Linkages between issues: linkages between issues could get lost... We also have to remember that some issues (such as poverty) are connected to other issues... if they fall, so does everything else. However, Rischard talks about a solution to this: to have a "twenty-first global issues network that would serve as the connector between issues and the networks working on them." (191). Aka, one big connector so each network can focus on their issue and this big connector will think globally. The simplistic appearance of it all: basically, it's not as simple as it may seem.
Chapter 22: This chapter talks about the other solutions to solving these global issues besides global issues networks. The G20 track: keep the issue-by-issue approach but stick to a more traditional approach of GROUPING countries. For each issue you would have a G20. G20's would also be more on-and-off than permanent/consistent, but G20's have the most "practical simplicity." (194). The new diplomacy track- and expanded concept of aid: this involves an expanded concept of diplomacy and aid. Rishcard explains some things we would need to do to create this expanded concept of aid: creating expert-diplomats who would directly deal with their equivalent foreign country/area on global issues, having two budgets rather than just one; one for domestic programs (c budget for country) and one for global action (g budget for global), divide official development aid in C and G budgets, and set up a global participation fund to help poor developing countries participate in global-problem solving (aka let them be a global citizen!). Rischard also talks about a possibility that the current international set up is not replaced but instead put under pressure through three things: global issues networks for some issues, G20 for others, and ideas on new diplomacy and expanded aid being applied more generally. Although this could be very messy, it could work even if we go back to some old ways of thinking, according to Rischard. Rischard also talks about some solutions that would not work: setting up a world parliament, creating an economic security council at the UN, increasing the G7 to a G16 or even a G20, launching a global governance group of 24 members. According to Rischard, these solutions would not work because they are trying to fix ALL of the global issues under one system- which will not work. Rischard also talks about how our world is sort of split in half- half of the people want change, the other half are afraid of it. The best way to not make those tensions worse would to deal with the issues issue-by-issue.
Chapter 23: This chapter was the conclusion chapter. Basically, people are looking for change so the global problems will get fixed. The world knows there is that upside, but right now we are not in it and we are running out of time to fix our world. The networks idea is a good solution to fix our problems because its fast, its flexible, and it can work with our time frame. According to Rischard, we need imagination, a different type of thinking... basically we need to think OUTSIDE of the box, and we need to do it quickly. We need to think straight and not get sucked into confused thinking. Rischard suggests that the way out of confused thinking is to step back and look at the two forces that will change our world: the population growth (making out world tight) and the new world economy (doing everything differently). These two forces bring with them a lot of stresses and a lot of potential and opportunities. "The biggest issue of our time is right there: raising the game of these human institutions and particularly of those in charge of public governance." (201). This is a huge job, and we need to think outside the box and act globally to fix our problems. Our current intrnational setup will not fix things, we need something new.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION: What is Global Citizenship and why does it matter?
From these chapters I have learned that we cannot fix our problems alone, we need to be global citizens and think globally and work together. You have to think and act as a global citizen in order to be successful; and EVERYONE has to think and act as a global citizen. People from all over the world have to be involved in what we are doing. Global citizenship is essential to global problem-solving. We are not going to solve anything if we only think of ourselves. For example, the members of the global issues networks have to think like global citizens in order for their problem to be fixed. If they act like global citizens and know what is going on around them they will have a better chance of having solutions to our problems. You cannot just represent yourself, you have to represent globally and be a part GLOBALLY. Everyone has to be involved, everyone needs to act globally and everyone needs to be aware of what is going on around them or else we will not be able to unify and fix our global issues.